NATO seeks closer Russian relations with Russia

Posted: Thursday, November 22, 2001

Deborah SewardThe Associated Press

MOSCOW - NATO Secretary General Lord Robertson visited Russia on Wednesday in a bid to strengthen Russia's relationship with the military alliance and devise ways of making joint decisions in the war against terror.

Robertson began his trip, his second this year to Russia, with a stop at the former city of Stalingrad, now called Volgograd, where the Soviet Union defeated the Nazis in a battle that remains a source of Russian pride. He heads to Moscow on Thursday.

Russian President Vladimir Putin's quick and concrete offer of help in the war against terrorism, following the Sept. 11 attacks against the United States, has greatly improved the chances for cooperation.

Russia's ties with the alliance suffered a severe setback in 1999 as a result of NATO's bombing campaign against Serbs for their repression of ethnic Albanians in Kosovo. Relations have improved this year but the Russians chafed at the primarily consultative nature of the discussions.

Robertson will be taking advantage of the warmer Russian attitude toward NATO to seek to "put the relationship on new footing" in light of new threats, a senior U.S. diplomat said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Since the 1997 signing of the Founding Act on Mutual Relations, Russia's contacts with the alliance have been limited to dialogue in a Permanent Joint Council, which gave Russia a voice in NATO but not a role in making decisions that it feels it should have.

"The essence of our proposals consists in creating a new mechanism of equal relations between the NATO countries and Russia so that Russia has the right to vote, the right to make decisions," Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov told reporters Wednesday, Russian media reported.

Among the major issues Robertson is to discuss is British Prime Minister Tony Blair's proposal to replace the Permanent Joint Council with a new body in which Russia would have an enhanced role in the alliance.

Russian officials have welcomed Blair's plan, and Ivanov said Wednesday that Russia was "attentively" studying the proposals.

Under discussion are ways in which Russia could make concrete decisions with NATO, including in joint initiatives to fight terrorism, joint military training, coordination of non-proliferation and counter-proliferation measures, the U.S. diplomat said.

"NATO is for Moscow one of the important partners in the fight against new threats, and Russia is ready for the development of close cooperation with the alliance in this sphere," Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Yakovenko told the ITAR-Tass news agency Wednesday.